Method and system for distributing art

ABSTRACT

An art distribution system for distributing art to multiple display devices within an environment. The art distribution system provides a technique for specifying images to be displayed in an environment. The art distribution system provides a hierarchical representation of spaces within the environment. Each space may be further subdivided into subspaces. The art distribution system allows a user to select a space within the hierarchy and then to select an image that is to be displayed at the display devices within the selected space. The art distribution system then displays the selected image within the space including within all subspaces of the selected space. The art distribution system may allow a subsequent assignment of the image to a subspace to override within that subspace the previous selection of an image for the space.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/710,461 filed Feb. 22, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/691,723 filed Oct. 22, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No.7,196,678, issued on Mar. 27, 2007, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/322,207 filed May 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No.6,670,934, issued on Dec. 30, 2003, which claims the benefit of U.S.provisional application Ser. No. 60/118,668 filed Feb. 3, 1999. Thecontents of each of the above-referenced U.S. patent applications areherein incorporated by reference in their entireties.

This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/322,455, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING SOFTWARECOMPONENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,898, issuedon Apr. 13, 2004; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/322,962, entitled“METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING CLIENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999, nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,684,246, issued on Jan. 27, 2004; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/322,643, entitled “AUDIO VISUAL ARCHITECTURE,”filed on May 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,943, issued on May 2,2006; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/322,459, entitled “METHOD ANDSYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS,” filed on May 28, 1999,now U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,234, issued on Oct. 15, 2002; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/322,965, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORIMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS OF AN INTERFACE,” filed on May 28, 1999,now U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,924, issued on Mar. 9, 2004; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/322,964, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORGENERATING A USER INTERFACE FOR DISTRIBUTED DEVICES,” filed May 28,1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,617453, issued on Nov. 10, 2009; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/322,852, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORMANAGING SOFTWARE COMPONENTS,” filed on May 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No.6,993,771, issued on Jan. 11, 2006; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/322,457, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROPERTY NOTIFICATION,”filed on May 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,970,925, issued on Nov. 29,2005, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The described technology relates generally to a computer system fordisplaying art and, more particularly, to a system that displayselectronic images in a distributed environment.

BACKGROUND

Prior to the electronic imaging of art, each artwork could only bedisplayed at one location. If a copy of the artwork was made, then thosecopies could be displayed at additional locations. With the advent ofelectronic imaging of art, electronic images could be displayed atmultiple locations using multiple computer displays, in addition, theartwork that is displayed at a computer display can be changedautomatically at periodic intervals for one artwork to the next. A playlist of images can be defined. The computer system that processes theplay list displays each image in sequence at periodic intervals. Inenvironments such as museums, a central computer system may control thedisplaying of a play list at various display devices throughout themuseum. The central computer system may maintain a database of theimages, and the museum administrator can define play lists and canspecify on which display devices are the images of the play lists to bedisplayed. Such techniques for displaying art may be acceptable formuseums, but may be unacceptable in other environments. The techniquesmay be acceptable in a museum because only the administrator from acentral location defines the play lists and specifies the displaydevices at which the play lists are to be displayed and because eachimage that can possibly be displayed needs to be stored at the centralcomputer system before it is assigned to a play list.

In other environments, such as a large house or an office building, itmay be desirable to allow users to control the display of images frominput devices throughout the environment. In addition, it would bedesirable if the images that can be assigned to a play list were notlimited to those currently stored at the computer system. Finally, itwould be desirable if an image is automatically made available forinclusion in play lists when the computer system detects that the imagesatisfies user-specified criteria and that the bitmap for the image isnow accessible and can be downloaded to the computer system.

SUMMARY

An art distribution system for distributing art to multiple displaydevices within an environment is provided. The art distribution systemprovides a technique for specifying images to be displayed in anenvironment. The art distribution system provides a hierarchicalrepresentation of spaces within the environment. Each space may befurther subdivided into subspaces. The art distribution system allows auser to select a space within the hierarchy and then to select an imagethat is to be displayed at the display devices within the selectedspace. The art distribution system then displays the selected imagewithin the space including within all subspaces of the selected space.The art distribution system may allow a subsequent assignment of theimage to a subspace to override within that subspace the previousselection of an image for the space. The image to be displayed may bepart of a play list of images.

The art distribution system also provides for the downloading of imagesin a background mode from a remote image storage device. The artdistribution system provides an image administration module that allowsa user to identify images that are to be included in a play list. Theimage administration module then sends the identity of those images toan art server. Upon receiving the identity of those images, the artserver determines whether the bitmaps for those images have already beenstored at the art server. If a bitmap for an image has not already beenstored, then the art distribution system requests that the image bedownloaded from an image storage device to the art server.

The art distribution system also allows a user to specify that imageinformation for accessible images that match specified criteria shouldbe downloaded when those images become accessible. The art distributionsystem periodically transmits the criteria to image storage devices. Theimage storage devices identify those images that satisfy the criteriaand then provides those identifications to the art distribution system.The art distribution system stores information describing those imagesso that a user can subsequently select those images to be included in aplay list. The bitmap for an image can then be retrieved after the imageis assigned to a play list.

The art distribution system also allows for a user to specify the playlist that is to be displayed on a display device from a user controlpoint device that may be located in the same room as the display device.The art distribution system provides a user interface at a user controlpoint device to which a user can specify the play list for a certainspace. In this way, the users can control the play list assignments fromdistributed locations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a displaying of an image along with imageinformation.

FIG. 2 illustrates the display of a user control point device forspecifying a play list for a certain space.

FIG. 3 illustrates a user interface for managing the play lists.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface for assigning a play list to aparticular space.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user interface for submitting a query for makingimages available to be put in a play list when images satisfying thequery become available.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the components of the art distributionsystem in one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the components of the art serverin one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components of an artadministration application in one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components of an art spacecontroller in one embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of the art administration controller.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of the manage play list function of the artadministration application.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of the assign play list to space function.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the retrieve image identifier function ofthe art server.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of the get images function of the art server.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of the art space controller interfacefunction.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of the processing of receiving events at anart component interface module.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of the processing of an art display module.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of the art user interface module.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

A method and system for distributing images throughout an environment isprovided. The art distribution system allows a user to specify playlists of images and to specify display devices at which the images ofthe play lists are to be displayed. The art distribution systemmaintains a database of the images that are specified in the play lists.The environment in which the art distribution system displays images ishierarchically organized into spaces and subspaces. For example, if theenvironment is a large house, then the spaces may be the east wing andwest wing of the house, the subspaces of the east wing may be thebedrooms and the kitchen, and the subspaces of the bedrooms may be themaster bedroom, the guest bedroom, and so on. Each space within thehierarchy may have one or more display devices within it. For example,the master bedroom may have several display devices that are capable ofdisplaying art images. The art distribution system allows a user tospecify that a play list is to be displayed at any level in thehierarchy. For example, a user may specify that a certain play list isto be displayed throughout the east wing of the house, and the artdistribution system will display that play list at every display devicewithin the east wing. If a user then specifies that a subspace of theeast wing, such as the master bedroom, is to display another play list,then the art distribution system will display that other play list atall display devices within the master bedroom. The art distributionsystem will, however, continue to display the original display listwithin the other spaces of the east wing. The art distribution systemmay also include a non-override mode in which the specifying of a playlist for a space will not override a play list that has the specificallyspecified for a subspace. For example, if a new play list is specifiedfor the east wing, that play list will be display throughout the eastwing except within the master bedroom because the master bedroom wasspecifically assigned a master play list.

The art distribution system allows a user from within any space tocontrol the play list that is currently being displayed within thatspace. Each space may have a user control point devices, such as a touchpanel display, within it. A user can specify a play list to be displayedwithin the space using the user control point device. Thus, the artdistribution system can be controlled from distributed locations ratherthan from only a central location. The display devices may also displayimage information in response to a user request. For example, if thedisplay device is a touch panel display, then when a user touches thepanel, the art distribution system displays information relating to theimage currently being displayed. The information may include the name ofthe artist, the country of the artist, and the year in which the art wasgenerated.

The art distribution system may also allow for images to be retrieved ina background mode and allow information on images to be retrieved as theimages become accessible. The art distribution system provides a userinterface through which a user can define, delete, and modify playlists. The art distribution system may display the names of the images,information relating to the image, and possibly even a thumbnailrepresentation of the images to assist the user in defining a play list.If the art distribution system does not already have an electronic copy(e.g., a bitmap) of the full-sized image, then the art distributionsystem queues a request to download the image. A download module of theart distribution system is responsible for retrieving a copy of theimage in a background mode and storing it in the image database of theart distribution system. In addition, a user can define criteria forimages of interest. For example, the user may specify an interest inimages of a certain artist. As new images of that artists becomeaccessible, the art distribution system automatically retrievesinformation relating to those new images. In this way, a user can bemade aware of certain classes of images as they become electronicallyaccessible to the art distribution system. The art distribution systemcan retrieve information.

FIGS. 1-5 illustrate portions of the user interface of the artdistribution system in one embodiment. FIG. 1 illustrates a displayingof an image along with image information. The display device 100displays the images of a play list under control of the art distributionsystem. The display device is currently displaying an image of a sailboat. When a user performs a specified action (e.g., touches a touchscreen display or click a mouse button), the art distribution systemdisplays a pop-up window 101 that contains information relating to theimage currently being displayed. The information may include the name ofthe artist, the year in which the artist created the work, and so on.That pop-up window may be displayed for a predefined time interval oruntil user performs another action. FIG. 2 illustrates the display of auser control point device for specifying a play list for a certainspace. The user control point device 200 is currently displaying an artplay list panel 201. The art play list panel indicates that the currentplay list for the master bedroom is play list 10. The art play listpanel also includes a scroll box 202 that contains a list of play liststhat can be specified for the master bedroom. The user selects thedesired play list from the scroll box. The art play list panel alsocontains a select space button 203. The art distribution system mayallow the user to control the play list for other spaces from thecurrent space (i.e., the master bedroom). When the user selects theselect space button, the art distribution system displays a list of thespaces that can be controlled from the current space. When the userselects one of those spaces, then the art distribution system displays apanel similar to that shown in FIG. 2 for that other space.

FIG. 3 illustrates a user interface for managing the play lists. The artdistribution system allows a user to create and modify play lists. Oneskilled in the art will appreciate that many different user interfacescan be used for specifying play lists. The display 300 includes an artplay list name drop-down list 301, an art play list scroll box 302, andan art available scroll box 303. The display also includes an add button304, a remove button 305, a done button 306, and a cancel button 307. Auser can either create a new play list or modify an existing play listusing this user interface. To create a new play list, the user entersthe name of the play list in the art play list name field portion of thedrop-down list. The user then selects the art to be added to the playlist from the art available scroll box. The user then selects the addbutton to add that art to the art play list. The art play list scrollbox lists the images that are currently in the selected play list. Toremove art from the art play list, the user selects the art from the artplay list scroll box and then selects the remove button. To modify anexisting play list, the user selects the play list using the art playlist name list box to select the play list. In response, the artdistribution system displays the images of the play list in the art playlist scroll box. The user can then add, remove, and reorder the imagesof the play list and delete the play list itself.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface for assigning a play list to aparticular space. The display 400 includes a space hierarchy window 401,a play list scroll box 402, an assignment button 403, and a done button404. The space hierarchy window displays the space hierarchy for theenvironment in which the art distribution system is controlling. In thisexample, the environment is a house and the spaces include an east wingand west wing, the east wing includes a bedroom subspace, and so on.This hierarchy can be displayed in a manner similar to the well-knowntechniques for displaying a file system directory hierarchy. The artplay list currently being displayed in each space is indicated inparentheses after the is name in the space. For example, the bedroomsspace is currently displaying art play list 10 and the subspaces masterbedroom and child1 are also displaying art play list 10 because no playlist was specifically specified for those spaces. The subspace child2 isdisplaying play list 1. A users assigns a play list to a space byselecting a play list from the play list scroll box, by selecting aspace from the space hierarchy window, and by then selecting the assignbutton. The art distribution system then directs each device within thatspace to start displaying the play list.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user interface for submitting a query for makingimages available to be put in a play list when images satisfying thequery become available. In one embodiment, a query is associated with aplay list, and when images that satisfy the query become accessible,they are automatically downloaded and added to the play list. Thedisplay 500 includes a current query scroll box 501, a query name field502, and a query field 503. The display also includes a submit button504 and a cancel button 505. To generate a new query, the user entersthe name of the query in the query name field and then enters the queryitself into the query field. One skilled in the art will appreciate thatany well-known query specification technique can be used to define thequery (e.g., SQL). To modify a query a user selects a current query fromthe current query scroll box. In response to the selection, the artdistribution system displays the name and that query in the query namefield and the query itself in the query field. When a user submits a newquery or a modified query by pressing the submit button, the artdistribution system starts a process of periodically checking to see ifany new images are accessible to the art distribution system thatsatisfy that query.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the components of the art distributionsystem in one embodiment. The art distribution system may be implementedin software and may execute on a computer system with a controlprocessing unit, memory, and input/output devices. The software and datastructures may be stored in a computer-readable medium such as a memory,CD-ROM, or disk and may be transmitted over a computer-readable datatransmission medium such as the Internet. The art distribution systemincludes an art server 601, an art administration application 602, artspace controllers 603, display devices 605, and user control pointdevices 606. The art server is connected to the art space controllersvia communications channel 607, which may be a logical channel whenvarious components execute on the same computer system. The art servercommunicates via communications channel 608 (e.g., the Internet) to anart mass storage device. The art mass storage device includes images andimage information for accessible images. The art server includes adatabase of the bitmaps for the images that are currently specified in aplay list. The art administration application allows a user to defineplay lists and submit queries. The art space controllers are assignedplay lists and control the display of the play list on the displaydevices and control the user interface of the user control pointdevices.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the components of the art serverin one embodiment. The art server includes a spatial hierarchy table701, a play list database 702, an image database 703, a space/play listassignment table 704, an image identifier table 705, and a new imagetable 706. The art server also includes an art server controller 707, anart mass storage interface 708, an art administration interface 709, andan art space controller interface 710. The spatial hierarchy tablecontains information describing the hierarchical organization of spaceswithin the environment controlled by the art server. The play listdatabase contains the name of each play list that has been defined alongwith the identifiers of the images within the play list. Each play listmay also have to a user-specified time associated with it that indicatesthe length of time each image in the play list is to be displayed. Theimage database contains the bitmap image of the images that have beendefined in a play list. The space/play list assignment table containsthe identification of each play list that is currently assigned to aspace. For example, the master bedroom may be assigned play list 10. Theimage identifier table contains the identifier of images that areavailable to be included in a play list. The image identifier table mayalso include information describing the image including a thumbnailbitmap of the image to assist the user in determining whether that imageshould be included in a play list. The new image table contains a listof images that have been recently included in a play list and whosebitmaps need to be downloaded from the mass storage device. The artserver controller controls the overall operation of the art server. Thisincludes controlling the interface with the art administrationapplication, responding to requests from the art space controllers,notifying the art space controllers of play list changes, andcontrolling the art mass storage interface. The art mass storageinterface processes the new image table to retrieve the images that havebeen recently included in a play list. The art mass storage interfacealso periodically submits the queries to the art mass storage device todetermine if any new images are accessible that satisfy the queries. Thequeries may be stored in a query table (not shown). The artadministration interface serves as the interface between the art serverand the art administration application. The art space controllerinterface serves as the interface between the art server and the artspace controllers. When transmitting images to the art displays, the artserver may spread the transmission over almost the entire time intervalduring which an image is displayed. For example, if an image isdisplayed for 60 seconds, then the art server may send 1/60^(th) of thenext image every second. This allows the next image to be retrievedwhile the current image is displayed without overloading thecommunications channel with a burst of transmitted data.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components of the artadministration application in one embodiment. The art administrationapplication includes an art administration controller 801, an art serverinterface 802, a manage play list component 803, an assign play listcomponent 804, and a submit query component 805. The art administrationapplication interfaces with I/O devices 806, such as a keyboard anddisplay, and interfaces with an art input device, such as an imagescanner. The art administration controller controls the selection ofwhether the user wants to manage the play list, assign a play list to aspace, or submit a query. The art server interface provides theinterface from the art administration application to the art server.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components of an art spacecontroller in one embodiment. The art space controller includes artdisplay modules 901, an art component interface module 902, and art userinterface modules 903. The art display modules are assigned a play listand loop through that play list retrieving the images from the artserver and displaying the images on the associated display devices. Theart component interface module provides the art display modules with theindication of the art display list that they are to display. The artuser interface modules provide a user interface at a user control pointdevice for selecting a play list that is to be displayed within thespace.

In one embodiment, the art distribution system provides an accountingpackage that monitors the display of images and provides an accountingto the providers of the images. The accounting package may base theaccounting for an image on how long the image has been stored at the artdistribution system, the total time the image has been displayed, howmany times the image has been displayed and so on. The accountingpackage keeps track of these statistics so that the providers can bepaid accordingly. The accounting package may have a provider table thatspecifies how the accounting is to be performed for each provider andprovides other provider-specific information, such as payment method,payment history, and so on. The image information associated with eachimage may include cost information and licensing restrictions related tothat image. A user of the art distribution system may decide to includeimages in a play list based on the cost of the image. The querymechanism of the art distribution system may also take cost intoconsideration. For example, a query may have a maximum cost associatedwith it. Any image with a cost greater than that maximum cost would notsatisfy the query. Alternatively, if an image would otherwise satisfythe query, the query mechanism may notify the user that an image thatsatisfies the query is accessible, but that its cost is more than themaximum cost. Upon receiving the notification, the user can then specifywhether the image should be downloaded. To minimize the cost of imagesand reduce the storage space that is required, the art distributionsystem may automatically delete images when they are no longer includedin a play list. Alternatively, the art distribution system may delay theautomatic deletion for a certain period of time to allow the adding ofthe image to another play list without having to re-download the image.

FIGS. 10-18 are flow diagrams illustrating example processing ofcomponents of the art distribution system in one embodiment. FIG. 10 isa flow diagram of the art administration controller. The artadministration controller allows the user to select which action toperform relating to the administration of the play lists. In step in1001, the controller waits for input from the user. In step 1002, if theuser selected to manage a play list, then the controller continues atstep 1003, else the controller continues at step 1004. In step 1003, thecontroller invokes a function to control the managing of the play list.In step 1004, if the user selected to assign to play list to a space,then the controller continues at step 1005, else the controllercontinues at step 1006. In step 1005, the controller invokes thefunction to assign a play list to a space. In step 1006, if the userselected to a load images from an input device, such as a scanner, thenthe controller continues at step 1007, else the controller continues atstep 1008. In step 1007, the controller inputs an image and provides itto the art server for storage in the image database. The user may alsoenter information describing the image. In step 1008, if the userselected to submit a query, then the controller continues at step 1009,else the controller loops to step 1001 to wait for user input. In step1009, the controller invokes a function to submit a query.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of the manage play list function of the artadministration application. This function displays the user interfacecorresponding to FIG. 3. In step 1101, the function retrievesinformation for the available art from the art server. In step 1102, thefunction displays the art management user interface. In step 1103, ifthe user selects to modify an existing play list, then the functioncontinues at step 1104, else the function continues at step 1105. Instep 1104, the function retrieves the old play list from the art server.In step 1105, the function updates the art management user interface toreflect the old play list. In step 1106, the function receives revisionsto the play list from the user. In step 1107, the function sends therevised play list to the art server and returns.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of the assign play list to space function. Thefunction displays the user interface corresponding to FIG. 4. In step1201, the function retrieves the currently defined play lists from theart server. In step 1202, the function retrieves the space hierarchyfrom the art server. In step to 1203, the function retrieves thespace/play list assignments from the art server. In step 1204, thefunction generates the display based on the retrieve data. In step 1205,the function receives user input of the assignment of a play list to aspace. In step 1206, the function sends the space/play list assignmentto the art server and then returns.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the retrieve image identifier function ofthe art server. This function is a part of the art mass storageinterface. This function determines whether images that satisfy thequeries are now accessible. In step 1301, the function selects the nextquery. In step 1302, if all the queries have already been selected, thenthe function continues at step 1303, else the function continues at step1304. In step 1303, the function goes to sleep until the specifiedinterval at which it is to next check for accessible images. Thefunction then loops to step 1301 to process the queries. In step 1304,the function sends the query request to the mass storage device. In step1305, the function receives the response to the query request. Thesending and receiving of query requests and responses may be over theInternet and may use the hypertext transfer protocol (“HTTP”). In step1306, the function updates the image identifier table with imageinformation for images that are not already stored in the imageidentifier table. In step 1307, the function adds an entry to the newimage table so that the image can be downloaded. The function then loopsto step 1301 to select next query.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of the get images function of the art server.The get images function is part of the art mass storage interface. Thisfunction processes the image identifiers that have been stored in thenew image table and retrieves the corresponding image. In step 1401, thefunction retrieves the next image identifier, if any, from the new imagetable. In step 1402, if all the image identifiers have already beenselected, then the function loops to step 1401, else the functioncontinues at step 1403. In step 1403, if the image for the selectedimage indentifier is already in the image database, then the functioncontinues at step 1407, else the function continues at step 1404. Instep 1404, the function requests the image from the mass storage device.In step 1405, the function receives the image. In step 1406, thefunction stores the image in the image database. In step 1407, thefunction removes the selected image identifier from the new image tableand loops to step 1401 to select the next image.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of the art space controller interfacefunction. This function identifies various conditions and sends eventnotifications to the art space controllers. In particular, the functionidentifies when a user has assigned a new play list to a space,identifies when a play list has been added or deleted, and identifieswhen a play list has been changed. In step 1501, if a new assignment hasbeen made to a space, then the function sends an assignment event instep 1502, else the function continues at step 1503. In step 1503, if aplay list has been added or deleted, then the function sends a play listmodified event in step 1504, else the function continues at step 1505.In step 1505, if the play list has been changed, then the function sendsa play list change event in step 1506, else the function completes.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of the processing of receiving events at anart component interface module. In step 1601, if an assignment event isreceived, then the function notifies the art display modules in step1602, else the function continues at step 1603. In step 1603, if achange play list event is received, then the function notifies the artdisplay modules in step 1604, else the function returns.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of the processing of an art display module.The art display module overlaps the displaying of an image withretrieving from the art server of the next image to be displayed. Themodule continually displays the images in the play list by displayingthe first image in the play list after the last image is displayed. Theart display module is provided with a display list. In step 1701, themodule selects the first image in the display list. In step 1702, themodule retrieves the selected image from the art server. In steps1703-1707, the module loops displaying the images in the play list atthe specified intervals. In step 1703, the module displays the lastretrieved image. In step 1704, the module selects the next image in thedisplay list. In step 1705, the module retrieves the selected image fromthe art server. In step 1705, the modules pauses for the requisiteinterval or until a user touches the panel. In step 1706, if the usertouches the panel, then the module continues at step 1707, else themodule loops to step 1703 to select and display the last retrieve image.In step 1707, the function displays the information relating to thecurrent image and then loops to step 1705 to pause. The display of theinformation corresponds to FIG. 1. In one embodiment, the module maycache the images so that each image of a play list only needs to beretrieved once.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of the art user interface module. This modulecontrols the user interface of FIG. 2. In step 1801, the moduleretrieves the assigned play lists from the art server. In step 1802, themodule displays the user interface for the user control point device. Instep 1803, if the user indicated to assign a new play list the space,then the module continues at step 1804, else the module returns. In step1804, the module notifies the art server to change the play listassignment for the space. The art server then sends out an event tonotify the art space controllers that the play list has changed.

Although specific embodiments of, and examples for, the describetechnology are presented for illustrative purposes, is not intended thatthe invention be limited to these embodiments. Equivalent methods,structures, processes, steps, and other modifications within the spiritof the invention are within the scope of the invention. For example, oneskilled in the art will appreciate that the mass storage device may be asingle storage device or multiple storage devices the may be provided bydifferent vendors of images. Also, an image storage device may beprovided with queries that then asynchronously notifies the artdistribution system when images that satisfy the query becomeaccessible. In this way, the art distribution system conceptually has“agents” working on its behalf. In one embodiment, the image storagedevice may be local to the art distribution system or some images may bestored in a local image storage device and others may be stored in aremote image storage device. The images may also be stored in formatsother then a bitmap format. For example, the images may be stored usingvector graphics. In one embodiment, the spatial hierarchy may not berelated to the hierarchical arrangement of physical spaces in theenvironment. For example, the spatial hierarchy may group all bedroomstogether even though the bedrooms may not be adjacent spaces. The artdistribution system may also allow for multiple hierarchies to bedefined to represent the spaces in the environment. A user can selectthe hierarchy of interest when assigning play lists. An art distributionsystem may be implemented using the techniques and facilities describedin U.S. patent applications entitled “Method and System for TrackingSoftware Components.” Accordingly, the invention is not limited to thespecific embodiments, but instead the scope invention is specified bythe following claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A display distribution system, comprising: a servercomputer storing a plurality of images and in network communication witha display device capable of displaying images; and a client computer innetwork communication with the server computer and capable of selectingat least one image from the plurality of images and instructing theserver computer to transmit the at least one image for display on thedisplay device, said display device being in a space separated from theclient computer wherein the client computer selects at least one of theplurality of images from the server computer and wherein the servercomputer transfers the at least one of the plurality of images to thedisplay device.